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Money matters for the Steelers

The NFL’s new fiscal year begins March 2, so the Steelers have less than two weeks to get their affairs in order.

Here are some of the issues facing the team:

n Decision due on Joey Porter’s future: It’s possible the Steelers could drop Porter and his 2007 salary of $4 million. But if they pay a March roster bonus of $1 million, he’ll stay.

Should they pay $5 million to a 30-year-old pass rusher with bad knees?

The only legitimate replacement on the roster is James Harrison, and he hasn’t shown to be consistently better than left outside linebacker Clark Haggans, let alone Porter. The only other player on the depth chart is Arnold Harrison, whose first season was wrecked by a torn ACL.

If the Steelers dump Porter, they’d need a veteran linebacker from the free-agent class. However, the best of the upcoming crop appear unattainable. Lance Briggs, 26, was slapped with a $7.2 million franchise tag by the Chicago Bears. Baltimore’s Adalius Thomas, who’ll turn 30 by next season, is looking for a signing bonus in the $12 million neighborhood.

A cheaper alternative as a 3-4 (even 4-3) pass rusher is Tully Banta-Cain of the New England Patriots. He’s 6-foot-2, 250 pounds and won’t turn 27 until August.

With a career-high 5.5 sacks last season, he’s on the rise as a player and therefore a classic Kevin Colbert target. But the Patriots, at almost $27 million under the cap, can easily keep him.

What’s apparent is that the cost of doing business is skyrocketing, so a healthy Porter could be a bargain at $5 million.

n The Steelers are in much better cap position than they’ve ever been: So proclaims Pittsburgh’s preeminent cap scholars, The ’Burgh Sports Guys. A concise summation at burghsportsguys.com projects the Steelers to be under the 2007 cap by $3.4 million.

Included in the number are calculations for Likely To Be Earned bonus balances from 2006 and for 2007, the retirement of Jeff Hartings, future tenders to exclusive-rights and restricted free agents, the expected release (and replacement cost) of Chris Gardocki, $2 million to sign draft picks, players Nos. 52 and 53 (March 2 compliance involves the top 51 salaries on the roster), and the 2007 practice team.

But even though the Steelers have more money than they’ve ever had under the league’s current financial structure, they rank near the bottom of the list.

Only three teams, according to Scout.com, will have less available cap space than the Steelers.

Twelve teams will have more than $20 million to spend, and another nine teams will have at least $12 million. It’s a seller’s market, so don’t expect much participation from the Steelers.

If they do chase a player, and need more cap space, expect them to renegotiate the contracts of Alan Faneca, Aaron Smith and/or Marvel Smith before releasing players such as Porter, Haggans ($2.5 million 2007 salary), Chukky Okobi ($2 million), Cedrick Wilson ($1.9 million), Travis Kirschke ($1.6 million) or Jerame Tuman ($1.2 million). Those players should all be at training camp.

I never did get how so many teams can be far under the cap but the Steelers are never but a couple of Millions or less

"It is hard to wait around for something that you know may never happen;but it's even harder to let go when it's everything you want"
-unknown

It's all about cap management. When teams get to be so far under the cap it's because they've either just come out of, are just coming into, or are in the middle of a rebuilding phase. At some point to get that much money to spend you have to have dumped a lot of high priced players from your roster.

The Steelers manage every last cent of their cap money very well so we can usually go out and get the players we need and sign our draft picks without having to try and break the bank on any one of them. In this day and age the cap is big enough that every team can afford to sign/keep alot more players than they could even 5 years ago.

The Steelers did make a huge mistake with Duce Staley, but you know overall, they do manage the cap very well. In fact, they are always trusting and reliable veterans in making sure they don't break the number.

Agreed; Steelers do a great job!

Every team has their own "Duce"! Impossible in this business where talent speculation is SOP to never get one wrong! Overall the Steelers are amongst the best teams at managing their dollars! I would also rank the New England Patriots near the top for getting value for their money!

We better not lose Joey, i'm gonna be pissed if we do! I"m sick of losing good guys because of money. While I understand and admire the financial consciousness of the Rooneys, I somewhat feel it borderlines on cheap! I want Joey to retired a Steeler..